Epitaph of Plauta
GVCyr012
Trismegistos ID: 105895
Source Description
Repository
Cyrene Sculpture Museum, 247.
Support
Slightly tapering stele of white marble, reddish from earth; at top in relief a large wreath with ribbons displayed at left and right below it; inside the wreath, a spindle and a roll with a ball of wool on it; below the wreath, between the two ribbons, a rosette; on top, a small hole for attachment (0.355-0.41; 1.07;0.18-0.22).
Layout
Inscribed a) just under the rosette; b) below the relief on 12 lines (0.61;); the limits of verse-lines are evidenced either through a punct or through a space.
Letters
0.025-0.03; traces of guidelines, slight serifs, letters packed together, nearly joining; straight alpha with dropped bar, lower loop of beta larger than the upper one, some (but not all) circular letters smaller, pi with shorter right stroke, non-slanting sigma, phi with two small loops on both sides of hasta, open omega with large 'feet'.
Place of Origin
Findspot.
Date
Perhaps second half of first or first half of second century A.D. (lettering)
Findspot
Found by the Norton mission on March 22nd, 1911 at Cyrene pleiades; HGL : North Necropolis before tomb N22 Cassels (see commentary).
Text constituted from
Transcription from stone (CDL).
Bibliography
Robinson, 1913 Robinson, D.M., 1913, Inscriptions from the Cyrenaica, American Journal of Archaeology (AJA)17, 157-200 - see in bibliography , pp. 161-162, n. 11, fig. 10, also p. 504, whence Roussel, Bulletin Épigraphique Roussel, P. , Bulletin Épigraphique, Revue des Études Grecques (REG), 1913-1936 - see in bibliography , 1914, p. 477; Sammelbuch Preisigke, F. et al. (eds.), Sammelbuch griechischer Urkunden aus Ägypten, Strassburg/Wiesbaden1915- - see in bibliography 5873; Peek, 1931 Peek, W. , 1931, Zu griechischen Epigrammen aus Ägypten, Hermes66, 317-336 - see in bibliography , p. 317. Cf. Peek, 1955 Peek, W., 1955, Griechische Vers-Inschriften, I-II, Berlin - see in bibliography , n. 758; Thorn-Thorn, 2009 Thorn, D.M., Thorn, J.C. (eds.), 2009, A Gazetteer of the Cyrene Necropolis from the original notebooks of John Cassels, Richard Tomlinson and James and Dorothy Thorn, Studia Archaeologica161, Roma - see in bibliography , p. 30; Santucci-Uhlenbrock, 2013 Santucci, A., Uhlenbrock, J., 2013, Cyrene Papers: the Final Report. Richard Norton's Exploration of the Northern Necropolis of Cyrene (24 October 1910 - 4 May 1911): From Archives to Archaeological Contexts, Libyan Studies, 44, 9-55 - see in bibliography , p. 16; Dobias-Lalou, 2014 Dobias-Lalou, C., 2014, Des pierres qui parlent en vers. A propos des épigrammes grecques de Cyrénaïque, in A. Delattre, A. Lionetto, La Muse de l'éphémère. Formes de la poésie de circonstance de l'Antiquité à la Renaissance, Paris, 319-331 - see in bibliography , pp. 324-325.
Text
| Τὴν διτόκον μονόπαιδα θε|ῆις ἰκέλην ὅδε Πλαύταν · νού|σωι καὶ τοκετῶι τύμβος | (5) ἔχει φθιμένην ·
ἀκλέα δ’ ἐν | σκοτίηι πηνίσματα καὶ λά|λος αὔτως (vac. 1)· κερκὶς ὁ|μοῦ πινυτῆι κεῖται ἐπ’ ἠ|λεκάτηι (vac. 1)·
5 καὶ τῆς μὲν βι|(10)ότου κλέος ᾄδεται ὅσ|σον ἐκείνης (vac. 1), τόσσον | καὶ μελέου πένθος ἀεὶ πόσι|ος.
Apparatus
2-3 Roussel, Bulletin Épigraphique Roussel, P. , Bulletin Épigraphique, Revue des Études Grecques (REG), 1913-1936 - see in bibliography , Peek, 1931 Peek, W. , 1931, Zu griechischen Epigrammen aus Ägypten, Hermes66, 317-336 - see in bibliography θεῆις ἰκέλην (Peek did not know Roussel's reading for BE) : Robinson, 1913 Robinson, D.M., 1913, Inscriptions from the Cyrenaica, American Journal of Archaeology (AJA)17, 157-200 - see in bibliography θε<ί>ῃ Σικελήν : Sammelbuch Preisigke, F. et al. (eds.), Sammelbuch griechischer Urkunden aus Ägypten, Strassburg/Wiesbaden1915- - see in bibliography θέῃ Σικελὴν (Preisigke from Keil per epistulam)
French translation
A l'âge de vingt ans
Ayant deux fois enfanté, mais mère d'un seul enfant, Plauta semblable aux déesses
est enfermée dans ce tertre, décédée de la maladie d'enfantement.
Dans l'ombre, sans gloire reposent avec elle la laine qu'elle fila et de la même manière sa babillante
navette repose près de son habile fuseau.
Et de sa vie on chante autant la gloire
que le deuil de son époux malheureux pour toujours.
English translation
Aged twenty years
Twice giving birth and once a mother, Plauta, equal to the goddesses
is shut up into this mound, deceased from the illness of childbirth.
In the shadow, deprived of glory, lie with her the spinned wools, as well as the babbling
shuttle near the wise spindle.
And of her life the glory is so much celebrated
as the grief of her husband forever unfortunate.
Italian translation
Di anni 20.
Avendo partorito due volte e madre di un solo bambino, Plauta, eguale alle dee,
è racchiusa in questo sepolcro, morta di parto.
Nell'ombra, senza gloria, giace con lei la lana che filava, come pure la garrula
spoletta vicino all'abile fuso.
E della vita di costei la gloria è tanto celebrata
quanto il dolore del suo sposo per sempre infelice.
Commentary
For the findspot, Robinson (from De Cou's papers) wrote «found face up in front of tomb on left of Fresco Tomb». Combined with Norton's archive, this should rather be interpreted as in front of tomb N22, as shown by Santucci in Santucci-Uhlenbrock, 2013 Santucci, A., Uhlenbrock, J., 2013, Cyrene Papers: the Final Report. Richard Norton's Exploration of the Northern Necropolis of Cyrene (24 October 1910 - 4 May 1911): From Archives to Archaeological Contexts, Libyan Studies, 44, 9-55 - see in bibliography . So also Thorn-Thorn, 2009 Thorn, D.M., Thorn, J.C. (eds.), 2009, A Gazetteer of the Cyrene Necropolis from the original notebooks of John Cassels, Richard Tomlinson and James and Dorothy Thorn, Studia Archaeologica161, Roma - see in bibliography , p. 30.
The reading of verse-line 1 was already established by Roussel in 1914. However this was not known in Germany to Keil-Preisigke and still not to Peek, who presented it independently in 1931.
As the antithesis δίτοκον μονόπαιδα shows, Plauta died while giving birth to her second child and the baby also died on that occasion, νούσωι καὶ τοκέτωι being thus probably a hendiadyn.
Metrical analysis: three quite regular elegiac couplets.
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